Movie and record labels are overjoyed at the support they're receiving from the British government

Late in October DailyTech reported on the new
three strikes piracy legislation proposed in the United Kingdom
by Britain's majority Labour Party. Under the legislation those
caught pirating would receive two warnings, then would be cut off
from the internet. The real headache, though, is how to police
the traffic and enforce the provisions on ISPs and
consumers.

Despite mass objections from telecoms, citizens,
electronics experts, law enforcement officials, and members of the
minority conservative and socialist parties, Labour Party officials
have blazed ahead with a framework to allow the legislation to be
enforced.

According to Labour Party leaders, the government is
planning on handing the expense of the Digital Economy Bill down to
taxpayers. That expense is estimated to be approximately £500M
(approximately $800M USD). On average, that works out to more
than £25 more a year ($40 USD/year) per internet connection.

And
that's considering that the government is counting on the bill
reducing piracy enough to increase media revenues by £1.7B ($2.72B
USD), leading to £350M ($560M USD) extra in VAT tax revenue.
If that increase isn't realized, British taxpayers could find
themselves on the hook for over $1B USD in enforcement expenses.

The
initial letter
writing campaign is predicted to cut off 40,000 citizens from the
internet and cost £1.40 ($2.20 USD) per subscription. The
government appears to have purposefully neglects to include possible
economic losses based on citizens being taken offline in its
estimates.

Charles Dunstone, chief executive of Carphone
Warehouse, whose subsidiary TalkTalk is the biggest consumer provider
of broadband in UK, is flabbergasted at how the punitive bill is
gaining so much traction. He states, "Broadband consumers
shouldn’t have to bail out the music industry. If they really think
it’s worth spending vast sums of money on these measures then they
should be footing the bill; not the consumer."

Still the
media industry is cheering the British government's decision to obey
their commands, despite the taxpayer expenses and objections.
Writes the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, an
industry trade group, "The overall benefits to the country far
outweigh the costs."

They argue that movies like X-Men
Origins: Wolverine and Star Trek have been pirated
millions of times, amounting to millions in lost revenues.

And
it certainly helps their argument that in the UK, like in the U.S.,
the media industry spends enormous sums on legal representation and
government lobbying efforts. As the growing conflict in Britain
is proving, if there's one lobbyist power in the UK and U.S. that's
perhaps greater than telecommunication firms, it's the media industry
trade groups.

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Taking this further, around 3% of the Japanese population is considered overweight, whereas the conservative US number is closer to 30% and out of the top 5, the highest was 12%, with the average being closer to 7-8%)